Unusual Photos.

Look at the state of our country. This was upsetting just as much as the victims.​

 

I haven't done the East end of London yet.
I have photos on my family tree of that.

 

I would love to see them. I think that Hitler may have been insane.

 

OH MY!!!

 

I have a book about the formation of bomb disposal squads in W W 2, they were only formed late on as nobody in government seriously believed that German planes would ever fly over Britain, let alone drop bombs on it! There's some interesting stories of real life heroism and also some horror stories too, many of the people who died dealing with these bombs did so simply because in the beginging nobody knew much about them, Ironically had anybody bothered to check, unbelievebly patents, including drawings of how a lot of the bomb fuses worked, had been lodged with the patent office in London, by their German inventor!
Many people were killed during the blackouts not as you may expect, by the actual bombing, but by being run over by cars and buses as the country struggled to operate during the hours of darkness.There's some really sad stories in it, one from a soldier who had been dealing with bombs and just lost most of his friends when a bomb they were working on exploded, he only escaped as he'd gone to get something at the time it went off!
He was so upset by the ghouls who crowded around looking for souvenirs that he threw a boot at one of them shouting "here, here's a souvenir for you", inside the boot was the foot of one of his friends who'd been blown up in the blast. Another went to a report of a small bomb, something like a ten pounder that had gone through the roof of a house and not exploded, inside one of the bedrooms there was a scene of horror, the bomb had gone through the roof, through the ceiling and into the bedroom below, smashing into a babies cot which sadly contained not only the bomb, but also what was left of a very young baby, how terrible a sight that must have been!
I had two relatives that played a fairly important part in W W 2, a great uncle who was a rear gunner in the famous Dambusters squadron, and also my grandad who was in the Royal Artillery, he was I believe involved in the Normandy Landings.He never said much about the war, to either me or my dad, he made a joke once about having five German soldiers impaled on his bayonet, which to a small child seemed perfectly believeable at the time. It was only much later that we learned a little bit about some of the horrors he'd witnessed, most of the time he'd either avoid talking about it, or make a silly joke and change the subject, I remember once someone saying something about going to France, "I wouldn't bother, it's horrible I went once and the beaches were filthy and full of rubbish" he replied, "oh, where was that then?" asked the man sounding rather shocked, " . "Normandy, in 44, it was bloody awful" he replied.
I had an old friend who I worked with on one of the farms, Norman, he was a real character, must have been in his eighties, he wouldn't talk about the war, anything else and he was a mine of information, mention the war and he'd get all nasty, "shurrup, you wasn't bloody there" was his favourite line. Sadly he passed away some years ago and after the funeral we were all having a drink at the club and began to piece together a little of his past, it turns out he was one of the very first British soldiers to enter the concentration camps, he was truly shocked at what he saw and it left him with not only a deepseated hatred of anything and everything German, but also of war.

Some people actually try and deny the horrors ever happened, some say we should try and forget them, me I say never, we need to remember them to make sure they're never repeated, we must also never forget the brave souls, both men and women who gave their lives so that we could be free, At the setting of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

 

Thanks, Candy, for the WWII photos. The kids in the trench brought tears to my eyes, though.

 

I will have to read this twice.
Thanks Phil.

 

I'll dig out the book later and let you know the title, maybe you can pick up a copy.

 

I have read my Eastend.
So much to learn.
My Dad was born in Popular.
My Grandad I never knew, so I was interested in learning why so many lost their lives in the Eastend.
I only know one story, they had just buried their loved ones, as a bomb hit, and blew all the bodies up!
My Nan told my cousin that.
All well before my time.

 

Almost looks like a car repair lol

 

Never knew that women could bark...meow

 

A 2000 year old butt plug made of jade and bronze, apparently these were used in ancient Egypt, not as sex toys but to plug the orifices of dead people and prevent fluid loss.Well you learn something new every day.

 

A very early steam powered 'manipulator', this was basically the first powered dildo, not unlike those modern devices that are based on a reciprocating saw, using one of these would be quite risky I would imagine.

 

This device from the 1800's was apparently capable of 5000 pulses per minute, you'd have to be really good to achieve that by hand, you have to wonder how good they were, I mean, surely, concentrating on turning the handle would detract from the reason you were doing it, I.e to achieve an orgasm, there must have been lots of frustrated women about.